A 38 year old single heterosexual female, sans husband, sets off on an adoption journey, hoping to become mother to an Ethiopian infant. All relevant topics may be discussed, such as international adoption, attachment parenting, transracial adoption, etc.

Sunday, September 20, 2009

If you insist on calling me Wonder Woman, at this point I may have to agree :-)

These are POTATOES, ONIONS and GARLIC, my first ever attempt at root veggies. Digging up the potatoes was like going on an Easter egg hunt, very exciting to spot the occasional yellow skinned lump among the soil. The markers had faded in time and I couldn't really remember where I had planted them. In fact, it was a complete experiment in the first place: I had found some old potatoes in the pantry, in a brown bag, that had sprouted 3 foot tendrils. I planted those just to see what would happen. THIS is what happened! Yay!

Here is everything cleaned up. The garlic lost it's paper skin.

In case it's not clear by the title of this post, I'm quite proud of myself. Not only am I a single mom, but I'm also able to keep up in the garden to a SLIGHT degree (we'll see about next year, this may be the last year I do this until Charlie is quite a bit older). It also follows my goal of feeding her as naturally as I can.

So now, I need to use up the garlic, as I waited a little too long to dig them up and therefore I had to take their skins off. Perhaps some shrimp scampi this evening.....

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Facts from Ethiopia

CHILDREN'S STATUSNewborns dying before age 1 - 1 in 10Children dying before age 5, often from preventable diseases -1 in 6Main causes of early childhood deaths -Diarrhea and pneumoniaOrphans, 2003 estimate -4 millionChildren under age 5 stunted from lack of nutrition - Over 50%High school attendance, females - 8.5%Population with use of adequate sanitation facilities - 15% Rural population with use of adequate sanitation facilities - 4% Population with use of improved drinking water sources - 24% Population with access to public health facilities - 61.3% Population more than 10 km (6 miles) from nearest health facility - Over 50%Physicians per 100,000 people - 3Population moderately to severely underweight - 38% Population stunted due to lack of nutrition - 47%

HIV/AIDSAdults infected weekly - 5,000Age group with highest rate of infection 15-24 years; female prevalence 3 times greater than among malesWomen living with HIV, 15-49 -770,000Mother-to-child HIV transmission - 2nd highest number of new infections per yearChildren dying from AIDS - 1 in 16Children orphaned by AIDS from 2003 to 2007 - 720,000